Pygmy Heleia

A medium-sized brown owl with a rounded head. Note the rufous underparts, clear white eyebrows, and striking yellow eyes. Upperparts chocolate-brown with bold white spots on the wings. Found in understory in lowland and foothill forest, roosting in the day in pairs or small groups within tangled thickets. Occurs at lower elevations than Cinnabar Boobook, and differs in its white eyebrows and brown upperparts. Gives a strident growling song, “woo-wooOW,” with a longer, louder second note. Also gives a single frog-like “grrrrow.”

A large-eyed and immaculately camouflaged nocturnal bird. Plumage is a mixture of brown, rufous, and gray speckling and barring, with a small white throat patch and a faint rufous collar. Found mostly in and around forest. Recorded roosting on sandy beaches and mangrove roots. Superficially similar to Solomons Frogmouth but unlikely to be confused. Song reported to sound similar to an axe hitting wood, a staccato “tok-tok-tok.”

A small hawk with yellow eyes, a lime-green bill base, and yellow legs. Adults are slate-gray above with a vinous breast and dirty white belly and thighs. Immatures are rufous above with diagnostic bold blackish spots and bars and heavily streaked pale underparts. Does not soar. Found primarily in forest from coast to mountains, but also in mangroves and woodlands. Confined to Sulawesi and nearby islands, including the Banggai and Sula Islands. Adult mostly inseparable from Small Sparrowhawk except by call, but largest female Vinous-breasted are longer-bodied, larger-billed, longer-tailed, and longer-toed than largest Small Sparrowhawk. Pale eyes separate Vinous-breasted from Spot-tailed Goshawk and from adult Chinese and Japanese Sparrowhawks. Absence of white tail spots further distinguishes it from Spot-tailed Goshawk, and unbarred thighs separate it from adult Japanese Sparrowhawk. Heavily marked underwings further differentiate it from Chinese Sparrowhawk. Call is a “kew-kew-ke-ke-ke-ke, lower-pitched than Small Sparrowhawk.